It's hard to believe January has escaped us! Technical difficulties delayed the release of the newsletter; hopefully all is resolved and all is going well for you. We have a lot planned for 2016 and we are super excited. Over the next few months you will learn about some of our members, receive information on the Skills Symposium in San Diego, the IAP2 North American Conference in Montreal, monthly learning webinars and much more. We are also hoping to create some new features, for example, “How does that technique work?” and “What I learned while planning this project/event.” However, we can only do this with your help – so email us and let us know if you have some articles to share or some other ideas for our monthly newsletter – you can contact us about anything IAP2 USA related by sending an email to Jennifer at info@iap2usa.org. We look forward to hearing from you.

Member Spotlight: Sandi Seader

The City of Longmont, Colorado, a community of over 90,000 on the east side of the Rockies within view of Long’s Peak, the City’s namesake, is a full service municipality providing all utilities—water, wastewater, electricity, broadband, trash removal, public safety and a variety of community services.

Assistant City Manager for Shared Services, Sandi Seader, oversees the City’s Community Engagement efforts and is Chair of the Community Involvement Team, which makes sure everyone from city employees to community volunteers engaged in leadership roles has the training and tools to provide effective community engagement.

“When you’re funded entirely from taxes and fees, it’s especially important to make sure everyone has a voice in local decisions. Everybody’s job involves the community in some way or another.”

New Government Agency Membership Level – Check out the Price and the Benefits

We are pleased to see our new Government Agency membership growing. This new membership level was created in direct response to our members’ requests and we are excited to be offering it. For the first time cities, regions, school districts, government transportation agencies and others can join at a discounted rate and take advantage of the many benefits membership brings. Please take the time to learn more about this new opportunity by reading the Government Agency Membership Fact Sheet. Already know all about it and want to join? Click here. Do you still have more questions? Contact Jennifer at info@iap2usa.org.

IAP2 USA Skills Symposium, February 21-25, 2016 – It’s Just Around the Corner

The IAP2 USA Skills Symposium is less than a month away! We have a lot of people joining us and we are excited to meet everyone and kick start those important networking opportunities. We do have some spaces left so please take a look at the courses on offer and register today.

Here are some highlights in case you are on the fence:

Monday night, February 22, we have a big sponsor bringing aBig Hairy Problemwhere everyone can participate in applying their P2 experiences, ideas and recommendations to spur new thinking for this utility company.

Othernetworking opportunitiesboth formal and informal are being planned. Imagine sitting around the pool or going out for a meal with your colleagues and discussing P2!

Expert trainers are offeringrich learning experiences. These are not presentations, they're are hands-on trainings.

Themodular scheduleallows you to select one, two or three day courses to fill as much of the week as you are able.

People often ask us about IAP2 USA—its committees, how it fits with the other Affiliates, Chapters, etc. To try and answer these questions we have created some organizational charts. The first one positions IAP2 USA within the broader Federation of Affiliates. The second chart focuses on IAP2 USA.

As you take a look at the IAP2 USA chart you will notice that we have a lot of terrific committees supporting all of the work that happens at IAP2 USA. If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out directly to the Committee chairs or contact us at info@iap2usa.org.

CONFERENCE FLASHBACK

Why Millennials are MIA from P2: Has social media replaced traditional methods of public consultation?

These University of Oregon students are engaged on engagement: How to reach others in their generation?

At the IAP2 2015 North-American conference, Acertys - which has since joined Hill+Knowlton Strategies Canada (H+K) - and Ipsos Public Affairs teamed up to present a study aimed to gain insight on the growing millennial generation and their relationship to P2.

Based on a literature review, we defined Millennials as the generation born between 1980 and late 1990s. They are highly-educated, media-savvy, misinterpreted, and represent 1/3 of the total US population, and over 1/4 of the total Canadian population.

IAP2 USA is pleased to announce the 2016 Mentorship Program, starting in March and finishing at the end of November. As some of you might remember IAP2 USA conducted a pilot project in 2015 and we are pleased to let you know that it was a success! The following are some of the comments from our 2015 Pilot Project participants:

"I am exceedingly grateful for the opportunity to have been a mentee in the IAP2 USA Mentorship Pilot program. My mentor both immersed me in new relationships within IAP2 where I could ask and learn and she brought me along with her to get work done that is important to her, and became important to me. The experience shifted me from an observer to a participant in this community and I look forward to rooting and growing here. (Mentee)

"Our profession is changing rapidly - with emerging communication technologies, challenging political contexts, and declining social capacity for addressing controversial issues in a civil manner. As a seasoned professional with over 25 years’ experience, I greatly enjoyed getting to know my mentee and her perspectives on our profession as a relative newcomer in the field. I am certain I benefitted every bit as much from the Mentorship Program as she did! (Mentor)

Start the Mentorship process by filling out a Terms of Reference – this will help determine what you are hoping to accomplish and how often you will meet

Participate in the Mid-Term Webinar – one hour in duration

Fill in the Program Evaluation Survey

If you are still interested but have more questions please contact Amelia at ameliaiap2usa@gmail.com. Deadline for applications/email requests is Wednesday, February 17. Please note that the Mentorship Program is only open to IAP2 USA members.

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Participatory Budgeting and the Balancing Act—the IAP2 February Webinar

IAP2 USA is excited to partner with the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) for our next Monthly Webinar. Coinciding with NCDD's Tech Tuesday, we'll be hearing about Balancing Act, a new tool that allows people to learn about the public budgeting process and get a greater understanding of the decisions public officials have to make. For those with an interest in Participatory Budgeting, this can be a very valuable resource.

There were so many great presentations at the Portland Conference last September, and in March, you’ll have a chance to hear from two presenters whose sessions proved to be extremely popular among the Conference-goers. If you weren’t able to get to the Conference in person, this is a great opportunity to catch up!

Triangles make for exciting reading, whether in a bodice-ripping novel or a juicy political scandal, but how do they work into public engagement?

Here’s another opportunity for you to learn from the best of the best – two Core Values Award winners that succeeded in bringing in previously-excluded communities, in wildly divergent areas, to achieve some very important goals. Between the two projects, there are lessons to be learned and applied in so many different ways, and you get to be part of it.

The Pikangikum First Nation of far northwestern Ontario and OregonMetro are about as far apart as you can get in terms of culture, economy and geography. Yet they share a very key common element: people who had been left out of the mainstream and who needed to be part of a public process.

January – Core Values Award Winners Part 1: Organizations of the Year—the IAP2 February Webinar

As that famous P2 consultant, Amy Grant, once sang, “It takes a little time to turn the Titanic around”. The co-presenters in our January Learning Webinar both had to turn some pretty heavy ships around in promoting a culture of engagement where there had been none before.

The City of Victoria and the St. Vrain Valley (Colorado) School District were named Organizations of the Year for Canada and the USA, respectively, at the 2015 IAP2 Core Values Awards last fall in Portland. Both have had to overcome internal trepidation and external cynicism to achieve that status, and the results can be seen in ways ranging from increased involvement in engagement processes to support for public-spending initiatives.

The second issue of the Journal of Public Deliberation(Vol. 11, Issue 2) has been published and is available online. This issue features research from a variety of countries around the globe including Australia, Norway, Canada, and Italy.

One essay offers a new model for assessing the legitimacy of deliberative processes. Research studies examine different deliberative designs such as citizen panels, online forums, and governance structures. The articles highlight topics such as prison systems, responses to terrorism, the implementation of online voting, and engaging youth in political discussion.

Registration is now open for the 2016 IAP2 North American Conference! The Conference will take place September 28-30, 2016, at the Sofitel in Montréal. As anyone who has been to previous Conferences (Halifax, Salt Lake City, Winnipeg, and Portland) can tell you, it’s an invaluable opportunity to learn from one another, meet old friends, make new ones and applaud the best in the business at the Core Values Awards.

Register now and get a SERIOUS discount on the regular price: until July 1, members (including international members) pay $550.00 while non-members pay $700. After July 1, those rates go up to $700 and $850, respectively. Full-time students pay $300 any time. PLEASE NOTE: All prices are in Canadian dollars – a significant savings given the strength of the US dollar. As well, you will need a special code to register as a member so please contact ameliaiap2usa@gmail.com for that code.

Your registration includes:

Welcome Reception, Wed. Sept. 28

All sessions, continental breakfast and lunch, Sept. 29 & 30

Core Values Awards Gala Dinner, Thursday, Sept. 29

You also qualify for the special Conference rate at Sofitel: CDN$189/night, which can also be applied to an extended stay, so you can enjoy even more time in Montréal!

Jan. 20 PI Network: Young Voices, Future Choices—Heather Coston and Addie Shrodes shared the outcome of more than 75 workshops and conversations with jurisdictional partners, educators, community-based organizations and most importantly, youth.

University of Oregon SP2—Has shared their guiding principles and bylaws so your chapter can too encourage the formation of SP2 (Students for Pubic Participation) groups at your colleges!

And Mark your Calendar for the 8th PI Works mini-conference in Bend, Oregon, June 16-17. Enjoy a day and a half of timely and relevant sessions by leading P2 practitioners at the newly-remodeled Riverhouse Hotel and Conference Center.

COLORADO

Is hosting the IAP2 Techniques for Public Participation program in Fort Collins in this week as a follow-up to Planning offered in November! Colorado Chapter Secretary Sandra Seader is featured in this month's Member Spotlight!

INTERMOUNTAIN Conference - April 22

Call for presentations: Forty-six years after the first Earth Day, environmental issues like energy efficiency, sustainable development, and transportation alternatives are still hot-button topics. At this conference, we would like to explore best practices and share tools and techniques that engage changing populations and contribute to informed, sustainable decisions. (Learn more!)

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Had a busy fall with several events and is growing by leaps and bounds! (Learn more!)

PUGET SOUND

Like Colorado, Puget Sound is offering the IAP2 Foundations in Public Participation program this week.